How Siddhartha became Buddha

How Siddhartha became Buddha

by Pratik Patel

December 26, 2018 • 4 min read time

Introduction

Siddhartha was born in a warrior family as a son of king Suddhodana. The birthplace of the Siddhartha Gautama is Lumbini, Nepal. His mother ‘Mahamaya’ unfortunately passed away after seven days of his birth. After the death of Mahamaya, Gautami took all the responsibility of Siddhartha and treated him as her son. Gautami is another queen of the King Suddhodana.

Description

At the time of Siddhartha's birth, king Suddhodana invited many saints and sages to bless his child. At that time, all the saints told that this child will become a great ruler of the kingdom. But one saint told that “Either this child will become a great king or a great teacher”. He also told the four major things that would change Siddhartha's life were Old age, Sickness, Dead body and Ascetic(to train the body).

After hearing this, the king Suddhodana was worried because if his son will become a great king then it will be okay but if he will become a teacher then he will not be happy by that as he always wanted his son Siddhartha to become a great powerful ruler of the kingdom. So he started to keep Siddhartha in a close luxurious room having all kinds of comforts and facilities provided within the room and did not allow Siddhartha to come out from that room. Siddhartha got married at an early age of 16.

One day Siddhartha was travelling by a horse cart and saw white hair on his coachman’s head. He saw white hair for the first time in his life and got shocked. He was amazed what was that and why? And then he came to know that it's because of old age, as people grow old their hairs starts turning white. Then after he moved forward and saw a person doing uneasy things and behaving differently, he asked that person why he is behaving like that and what's wrong with him? Then he came to know that it's because of sickness. After watching this, Siddhartha again started thinking that this well being is not permanent. After some distance, he saw some people were carrying a dead body for burning and some were crying because of that. He was shocked to realise that our body is also not going to be permanent with us. Then after he saw a saint lost in doing prayers for the God. He started thinking that if all have to die one day, then why this all facilities and showoff are needed? He thought why people are so much attached with all the wealth! Therefore he decided to leave all his comforts and luxurious life and started worshiping the God.

But it was not easy for him to do so because his father made a strong security arrangements at the doors and all over the palace for him so that he couldn't leave the palace. It is believed that all the above situations happened hypothetically, nobody knows that in the close room how the old man came after this much strict security of the king, how the sick person came and how dead body came. It is said that it was due to the god’s act. He was lost in all these thoughts and meanwhile he got the news of becoming father of a baby boy. After hearing the news he was neutral, not so happy and not so sad as his mind was full of the thoughts. Siddhartha was blessed with a son named ‘Rahula’. Now, it is believed that the king arranged a big celebration function in the palace for celebrating the birth of Rahula. And a day before the celebration everyone was busy with the preparation of that function. Hence at that night everyone was tired after doing the preparation of the function and fell into the deep sleep.

At that night it is believed, as everyone was in the deep sleep, Siddhartha got chance to leave the palace. And according to the stories passed down, he took his horse cart and went from the palace to the jungle. It is also said that the semi-gods(Angels) came there to help him (sent by the gods) and put their hands below the horse foot so that nobody will wake up by the sound of horse cart. After reaching to the jungle he took off his ornaments and all his kingship facilities and left his horse too.

Now, Siddhartha left all his luxurious life at the age of 29 and started meditating and worshiping god. But as he was brought up in a king’s family, he don’t know how to do all that. After struggling a lot he got his first Guru(teacher) in the form of “Alara Karma”, who taught him how to meditate. Then after he started his first tapasya(meditation) under a pipal tree at the bank of river Niranjana. He was enlightened by Lord Brahma after the meditation of 49 days. Lord Brahma blessed him with the meaning of life and from then Siddhartha was known as BUDDHA which means, ‘the one who is awake’. He was enlightened one week before his 35th name day. After this he started spreading the knowledge about the meaning of life to the people. And many people started following him, who called themselves ‘Buddhist’. Buddha continued teaching people how to achieve happiness and peace of mind in life for 45 years. His famous thought was, “Life is full of sorrow”. He passed away at the age of 80 at, Khusinagar(Uttar Pradesh).

Introduction

Siddhartha was born in a warrior family as a son of king Suddhodana. The birthplace of the Siddhartha Gautama is Lumbini, Nepal. His mother ‘Mahamaya’ unfortunately passed away after seven days of his birth. After the death of Mahamaya, Gautami took all the responsibility of Siddhartha and treated him as her son. Gautami is another queen of the King Suddhodana.

Description

At the time of Siddhartha's birth, king Suddhodana invited many saints and sages to bless his child. At that time, all the saints told that this child will become a great ruler of the kingdom. But one saint told that “Either this child will become a great king or a great teacher”. He also told the four major things that would change Siddhartha's life were Old age, Sickness, Dead body and Ascetic(to train the body).

After hearing this, the king Suddhodana was worried because if his son will become a great king then it will be okay but if he will become a teacher then he will not be happy by that as he always wanted his son Siddhartha to become a great powerful ruler of the kingdom. So he started to keep Siddhartha in a close luxurious room having all kinds of comforts and facilities provided within the room and did not allow Siddhartha to come out from that room. Siddhartha got married at an early age of 16.

One day Siddhartha was travelling by a horse cart and saw white hair on his coachman’s head. He saw white hair for the first time in his life and got shocked. He was amazed what was that and why? And then he came to know that it's because of old age, as people grow old their hairs starts turning white. Then after he moved forward and saw a person doing uneasy things and behaving differently, he asked that person why he is behaving like that and what's wrong with him? Then he came to know that it's because of sickness. After watching this, Siddhartha again started thinking that this well being is not permanent. After some distance, he saw some people were carrying a dead body for burning and some were crying because of that. He was shocked to realise that our body is also not going to be permanent with us. Then after he saw a saint lost in doing prayers for the God. He started thinking that if all have to die one day, then why this all facilities and showoff are needed? He thought why people are so much attached with all the wealth! Therefore he decided to leave all his comforts and luxurious life and started worshiping the God.

But it was not easy for him to do so because his father made a strong security arrangements at the doors and all over the palace for him so that he couldn't leave the palace. It is believed that all the above situations happened hypothetically, nobody knows that in the close room how the old man came after this much strict security of the king, how the sick person came and how dead body came. It is said that it was due to the god’s act. He was lost in all these thoughts and meanwhile he got the news of becoming father of a baby boy. After hearing the news he was neutral, not so happy and not so sad as his mind was full of the thoughts. Siddhartha was blessed with a son named ‘Rahula’. Now, it is believed that the king arranged a big celebration function in the palace for celebrating the birth of Rahula. And a day before the celebration everyone was busy with the preparation of that function. Hence at that night everyone was tired after doing the preparation of the function and fell into the deep sleep.

At that night it is believed, as everyone was in the deep sleep, Siddhartha got chance to leave the palace. And according to the stories passed down, he took his horse cart and went from the palace to the jungle. It is also said that the semi-gods(Angels) came there to help him (sent by the gods) and put their hands below the horse foot so that nobody will wake up by the sound of horse cart. After reaching to the jungle he took off his ornaments and all his kingship facilities and left his horse too.

Now, Siddhartha left all his luxurious life at the age of 29 and started meditating and worshiping god. But as he was brought up in a king’s family, he don’t know how to do all that. After struggling a lot he got his first Guru(teacher) in the form of “Alara Karma”, who taught him how to meditate. Then after he started his first tapasya(meditation) under a pipal tree at the bank of river Niranjana. He was enlightened by Lord Brahma after the meditation of 49 days. Lord Brahma blessed him with the meaning of life and from then Siddhartha was known as BUDDHA which means, ‘the one who is awake’. He was enlightened one week before his 35th name day. After this he started spreading the knowledge about the meaning of life to the people. And many people started following him, who called themselves ‘Buddhist’. Buddha continued teaching people how to achieve happiness and peace of mind in life for 45 years. His famous thought was, “Life is full of sorrow”. He passed away at the age of 80 at, Khusinagar(Uttar Pradesh).